Jamaica unions warn of industrial unrest if talks with the government are not fruitful.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), Helen Davis Whyte, is warning of possible industrial unrest if a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service on Thursday fails to address outstanding issues facing workers.

The ministry officials are to meet with union leaders amid growing discontent among public sector employees over the adjusted salaries under the compensation review program.

The JCTU had served a 10-day ultimatum on the Ministry, alleging that it had breached the Heads of Agreement under the compensation review program.

“The Ministry of Finance has responded to the ultimatum given to concerns raised by unions within the Confederation of Trade Unions about a non-response of the government to issues raised regarding the implementation of items that agreed in the compensation review,” she told Radio Jamaica.

The JCTU leader said the Ministry has indicated it is willing to meet with the unions on Thursday, “and the blocks will be attending the meeting with the hope that we will be able to clear as many of the issues out of the way…

“I think the major issues are the non-payment of increments over the three years of the implementation of the compensation review as well as the non-payment or cessation of duty allowance that the Ministry implemented without any agreement with the unions.”

The JCTU president said the unions are going into Thursday’s meeting “hoping to make some movement regarding resolving those two issues…especially because those are issues that were not agreed with the unions.

“As we have indicated, unrest has been building among the workers because the government was not responding as quickly as we would have liked, and we had indicated in our letter that it was bordering on unrest at this time,” she told radio listeners.

Last month, Finance and Public Service Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke, during the presentation of the trillion dollars (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) budget to Parliament, announced that J$4.3 billion had been allocated in the fiscal package to settle wage agreements with some of the influential public sector groups, which ended on March 31.